October 27: The locals of Baglung as well as commuters have been suffering due to failure in completion of the Mid-Hill Highway, a national pride project.    
Although the Baglung-Ghodabandhe section along the Mid-Hill Highway was opened two and a half decades ago, the road has yet to be blacktopped forcing locals to deal with the dusty road.    
The highway office had awarded the contract to two contractor companies to blacktop the 25-km section stretching from Upallochaur to Ghodabandhe. The project completion duration was set for two years. But seven years on, the project has yet to be completed.    
India-Siddhisai JV won the contract to blacktop the 13-km track from Upallochaur while Surya Construction Company was contracted for blacktopping the remaining 12-km from Bihun to Ghodabandhe. As of now, only seven kilometers of the 13 km track has been completed though the deadline was extended four times. Similarly, only six kilometers of the 12-km road section has been blacktopped despite the deadline being extended five times.    
The locals have been forced to face dusty road conditions for years due to the dillydallying in completing the project, complained Kedar Kandel, a local.

“It has been years since the project started. But nothing has changed. Now, there is bulky dust on the road and the road is muddy during the rainy season,” he said. -- RSS